ICUT is both pleased and proud to announce the appointment of a
National President, namely Professor David Marsland,
Emeritus Scholar of Sociology and Health Sciences, Brunel University, London and Professorial Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of
Buckingham.

Other Accolades- Fellow of the Royal Society of Health, Fellow of the Institute of
Supervisory Management, Member of UNESCO Social Sciences Board, Advisor
to the British Parliamentary Social Security Committee, Hon. General
Secretary of the British Sociological Association; Recipient of the 1991
Margaret Thatcher Award for his writings on freedom and enterprise.

Professor Marsland is a distinguished writer, broadcaster and
academic commentator, and well known to the worlds of Sociology and Politics
where he has made many unique contributions. His litany of books and scholarly papers assumed
an increasingly strident challenge to the leftist consensus previously
characterising Sociology and Health Studies. The two most recent publications, Seeds of
Bankruptcy (1988, Claridge Press) and Welfare or Welfare State?
(1996, Macmillans) both questioned excessive reliance on state welfare as
well as challenging the worth of traditional and socialist elites. They plot
a new direction based on personal initiative, reassertion of the work ethic
and transformation of dependency culture to meritocracy, self help and growth.

Professor Marsland continues his contributions to debates on welfare,
youth and related issues. Originally a man of the British centre-left,
he became a key figure in the 1980/90s
Radical Society where he joined like-minded academics, politicians and
social commentators in embracing the new culture of enterprise,
individuality and meritocracy ushered in by Mrs Thatcher's premiership.
Professor Marsland holds a healthy distaste for state and private
monopolies, and advocates his beliefs with a style that is independent,
articulate, even iconoclastic, but always respectful of other viewpoints.

ICUT welcomes the arrival of such a distinguished scholar to our
ranks. We salute his achievements, we love his style, and we share his
distaste for elites and monopolies, especially the current generation of
pompous academics and smug bureaucrats running so many of our U.K. universities.
Most importantly, we look forward to a fruitful association with this most prodigious and independent-minded of British
social thinkers.

“ICUT seems to
me an immensely valuable innovation in the sphere of education. It is serving
students well in helping them to make the very best of themselves and their
capacities.

Some few
British universities are among the best in the world. But this is no great
claim. Rapid expansion of our university system and fashionable overemphasis on
research by comparison with teaching has produced a situation in which many
students find less effective care of their learning experience than they need
and have a right to.

ICUT is
answering this need very effectively. ICUT, its Director Dr Vincent McKee, and
its staff deserve the support of everyone who believes that education is – for
our nation and individuals alike – the path to the future for Britain and those
many friendly nations from where visiting students come.”